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September 27, 2007

G159: Twins 5, Red Sox 4

Bad news everywhere.

Boston's ninth inning rally falls short (box) and the Yankees beat the Devil Rays 3-1. Up by 2 with 3 to play.

It initially looked like the Sox would rout Bonser, as he threw 39 pitches in an eight-batter first inning, allowing three hits and two runs. But he recovered and lasted five innings (5-6-3-2-2, 97). Beckett was not sharp at all (6-10-5-0-6, 99), allowing the Twins to put their leadoff man on base in each of the first five innings. He also gave up solo home runs to Cuddyer and Jones.

Boston trailed 5-3 after six innings. Varitek hit a solo shot in the eighth and, with two outs, Hinske and Lugo both singled. Joe Nathan came in from the pen and got Pedroia to pop out to first base. In the ninth, Moss doubled to left and Ortiz walked (Tiz also singled twice, doubled and homered, with 2 RS and 2 RBI). Lowell moved the runners to second and third on a grounder to first, and Nathan walked Drew intentionally to load the bases.

Varitek fell behind 0-2, fouled off a couple of pitches and brought the count back to 2-2 before striking out on a slider down and in. Youkilis pinch-hit for Kielty and fanned on three pitches, the last one a check swing on a high fastball.

Okajima pitched the Twins eighth. He threw 14 pitches. Morneau flew to right on an 0-1 pitch. Cuddyer hit a first-pitch single to center and stole second, but Jeemer whiffed both Jones (bbffs) and Lecroy (bbfcbs).

In Tampa, the Yankees pounced on the Rays pen and broke a 1-1 tie as soon as Kazmir left the game (6-3-1-0-10, 100).

I managed to get the TWC (The Worst Cable) to reschedule our service call for tomorrow rather than next week, so I might get my EI back then. For tonight, it's all about the XM again. Great in the car or while cooking dinner, but I resent having to use it when I've blocked off time for baseball.

"The very well-connected Gordon Edes is informing me, via his sources in St. Petersburg, Fla., that the Yankees, who face the Devil Rays and Scott Kazmir tonight are lagging a little bit after clinching a posteason berth last night. Some observers down there were astonished at how hard the team celebrated, especially compared to the muted toast the Sox made in the same ballpark when they clinched. It seems the Yanks are pretty convinced it's the only celebration they will get to have before October gets underway. And today they are taking their time getting to the ballpark. The last bus from the team hotel left at an unusually late 5:30 p.m., and the team is not taking batting practice. Their starting lineup still wasn't posted as of a short time ago. Are the Yanks conceding the AL East?"

A good outing by Beckett makes his CY noise a little louder. 21 wins is a strong, but flawed argument. If CC's last outing is not so good, Josh might even deserve the award.

Wins might not be the be all to be all and I have argued that also, but it is the tie breaker and Josh beats him in ERA, WHIP, and various other comparasions. In fact you could argue that they are so close that its a flip the coin, but 21 wins will cinch the deal.

If anyone is actually watching the game, can you see if Becks is blowing V-Tek off or something? The Gameday I'm watching seems to display the hits off Beckett as all fastballs.

I haven't seen anything unusual. It seems to me like he's lethargic and his location on the curve and change up are missing the plate. Even the FB seems to be wild a little. He's just missing his spots.

i have this problem sometimes where i will be connected to the network but i can't go to any websites.. but some things do work. now, here's what i do, and it might work for you, it might not...

go to control panel, click on Administrative Tools, then go to Services.

A window will pop up with a long list of things. Expand the window so you can see what everything is called. What you need to find is anything that says "Network Proxy"... Mine says "Symantec Network Proxy" because of my anti-virus/firewall.

If you find a "Network Proxy" service, and when you click on it there is an option to "Start" the service, rather than "Stop" or "Restart" the service, then click Start. If it says Stop, or Restart, then that's not the problem.

Sometimes the Network proxy service will randomly shut off, which will not let you do a lot of things.

And Yankees tied it up. Better fix Laura's computer so she can come join us in worrying. I know we have three more games to clinch this, but I really was counting on Beckett. Is he trying to lose the Cy Young and the game?